“When World Rugby announced us as the preferred nation it was a done and dusted deal,” Wiese said.

“It’s a huge blow – a huge loss to South Africa and it’s very unfortunate.”

The 53-year old believes South Africa would have pulled off a successful event like the country has done several times in the past, but believes the crime statistics could have been could have been the Achilles heel.

“We’ve got the track record. We’ve had the Rugby World Cup and the Soccer World Cup and we’ve hosted the most successful events in history, financially,” he said.

“The only thing that comes to mind is the current situation in our country, unfortunately. The very high levels of crime … that probably counted against us in the end.”

The issue of crime was also raised by French Rugby Federation boss Bernard Laporte after it was announced that South Africa were the preferred host candidate in October.

Laporte was extremely critical of the World Rugby report which scored France and South Africa equally on security.

Ireland also joined in in voicing concerns of public safety if the World Cup were to be held in South Africa.

“The political unrest in our country definitely counts against us,” he said.

“The extremely high levels of crime and murders must count against us. It’s one of the very big things that World Rugby looked at.

Wiese believes all this played a massive part in swaying some members of the World Rugby council into voting for France.

“There are a lot of people coming into the country for a World Cup and they need to be safe. In my opinion, that is the deciding factor.”